Chapter 210: That Year, That Month, It's the Season of Separation Again

July had just passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was August, the season of "not yet finished."

The old saying goes, "the eventful autumn." Every year at this time, all walks of life are busy as a pot of porridge, sticky and unable to get away.

Farmers are busy with autumn harvest matters, merchants are busy moving more goods before the end of the year, and those rebel groups, for the sake of winter food and next year's funds, are also busy training troops and waiting for opportunities.

In the Jinmen territory, the August fishing season arrives, and the fish that overwinter gather together. The fishermen at the pier who live by eating "water grain" are busy catching fish.

In autumn, everyone is busy, and even the funeral business, which is usually cold, has to get busy.

Autumn execution ground, in front of the vegetable market.

Familiar red cloth banners, familiar posters, and the people who hold buns in their hands, staring at the free dipping sauce all day, persevering.

Xu Qing doesn't understand. He guesses in his heart that maybe the human-blood bun is really delicious, otherwise why would there be repeat customers here?

On the execution platform, besides Magistrate Chen and Judge Li, there were two more people this year.

Xu Qing looked at Wu Zhiyuan and Wu Wencai's expressionless faces, as if he were looking at the marionettes on the stage, their laughter and scolding no longer controlled by them.

Tsk, collecting corpses is better. Sitting on a coffin, isn't it the same as "sitting as an official"? Which of those corpses dares to argue with him?

On the platform, Magistrate Chen threw one cylinder of red-headed signs after another, and the brush in Judge Li's hand never stopped. Looking at the movement, it seemed like he was drawing big red crosses.

It wasn't until Yang Hong, Yuan Hu, Zhou Heng, and others were pushed to the execution ground that the two stopped their movements and temporarily handed over the supervision of the execution to the Wu brothers.

Wu Zhiyuan's face was cold and hard, the red-headed signs in his hand were merciless, and Wu Wencai's judge's brush brushed and drew. By the time the heads of several people fell to the ground, Judge Li took the name list, scanned it, and nodded.

Under the execution platform, Xu Qing was happier than anyone else.

After all, he is the one who collects corpses and performs funerals. If he isn't happy at this time, who is?

The officials can't let go of their faces and have to keep a straight face in this serious occasion, but he is the owner of a funeral shop and doesn't need to maintain an image, so he can be as comfortable as he wants!

So, among the crowd of onlookers watching the execution, there was one who almost wrote his happiness on his face.

Everyone had long been used to it. As long as it wasn't themselves being beheaded, they let him be happy!

On this side, Xu Qing was watching others being beheaded with great interest, when he suddenly felt someone reaching out to pull him.

Seeing that they couldn't pull him, the person pushed away the person next to them and squeezed to the front of the viewing platform.

Xu Qing looked sideways and saw a person holding a sign high, squeezing into the execution ground, shouting: "Spare the person under the blade!"

Usually, when Xu Qing heard or saw this sentence in the storyteller's storybook, he felt quite something, but his subconscious reaction now was—

Who is this person? Is the execution ground opened by your family? You say spare the person and spare the person?

However, I don't know if this sentence naturally carries some kind of stopping attribute, but the blades that the five or six executioners had just raised really didn't fall!

The soldiers maintaining order drew their swords and stepped forward to stop him, but the person showed his waist token and said condescendingly: "I am a walker of the Mirror-Reflecting Division. All remaining prisoners who are martial artists are transferred to the division for execution..."

This person clearly calculated the timing, deliberately waiting for the several prisoners ordered by the imperial court to be executed before coming forward to stop the remaining death row prisoners who needed to be executed.

Chen Guangrui and Judge Li whispered to each other. The latter seemed to have communicated with the Mirror-Reflecting Division long ago. Without waiting for Chen Guangrui to ask more, Judge Li had the remaining death row prisoners divided into two batches. Those who were not martial artists continued to be executed at the execution ground, while those who were burdened with heavy shackles and locks and had kung fu were all pushed off the execution ground.

Xu Qing frowned as he watched. What does the Mirror-Reflecting Division want with martial artists? And they specifically pick some death row prisoners...

Recalling Liao Jinzhong, who had been smiling all the time when he was accompanying the trial at the government office, Xu Qing always felt that there was some unspeakable dirty business hidden inside.

These eunuchs are like the loincloths they wear on their bodies, always liking to hide things and do some dirty work that cannot be brought to the table.

But no matter what the dirty business was, Xu Qing secretly noted down the fact that it ruined his business.

A month later, the autumn execution came to an end. Xu Qing counted the number of death row prisoners beheaded this year, but found that it was about a hundred fewer than in previous years.

You must know that Linjiang County is a famous commercial port in Jinmen, with merchants coming and going like ants. It can be said that the most lacking thing is people, plus the refugees from Yaozhou accommodated in the new Yaofang. In the past year, the county government's prison has been expanded twice.

There are many capable people gathered at the pier, and naturally there will be no shortage of people on crooked paths. Logically, his harvest this year should have increased rather than decreased.

"Does Officer Zhao know how many death row prisoners were transferred to the Mirror-Reflecting Division?" When collecting corpses, Xu Qing seized the opportunity and asked casually.

"Why do you ask this?"

"Hey, what can I have? It's just that the number of corpses this year is much less than in previous years, and I don't know if our pier is really more stable than in previous years, or some other reason..."

Zhao Zhonghe said unhappily: "Stable my ass! Since I became a catcher, I haven't been as tired as these two years!"

"As for the number of corpses... do you know how many death row prisoners were sent to the Mirror-Reflecting Division?"

Zhao Zhonghe held up two fingers: "No less than two hundred."

Xu Qing raised an eyebrow upon hearing this: "What does the Mirror-Reflecting Division want with these death row prisoners?"

"Who knows." Zhao Zhonghe supported his catcher's sword and laughed: "It's not a bad thing anyway, and it saves the brothers in the government office the trouble of dealing with these corpses..."

The two were talking when a copper coin rolled over from somewhere, and as luck would have it, it rolled right in front of Zhao Zhonghe.

The copper coin was quite delicate, and it turned a few times lightly before lying on the ground.

Zhao Zhonghe bent down to pick up the copper coin, looked up into the distance, and saw that the vegetable market was full of carriages and horses, and pedestrians were like weaving, making it impossible to judge where the copper coin came from.

"The murderous aura on this execution ground is too heavy. Look at these copper coins; they are still stained with blood. Anyone who didn't know better would think they were 'life-buying money' dropped by some wronged ghost!"

Zhao Zhonghe said half-jokingly, then raised his rough finger full of calluses and rubbed the blood stains on the copper coin.

On the side, Xu Qing subconsciously opened the "Qi-Observing Technique," only to see a wisp of ominous black energy lingering on the copper coin in Zhao Zhonghe's hand, but strangely, as soon as the other party wiped the blood stains on it, the black energy dissipated completely, as if what he had seen before was an illusion.

"Officer Zhao, can you lend me this copper coin to take a look?"

"It's yours!"

Xu Qing took the copper coin that Zhao Zhonghe threw casually. He played with it for a while, but didn't find anything unusual.

Strange...

Xu Qing looked at Zhao Zhonghe's departing back and shook his head.

Perhaps it was the murderous aura on this catcher that happened to dissolve the little gloomy energy on the copper coin. Besides this, Xu Qing couldn't find any other reasonable explanation.

Jingxia Street, Mortuary Service Shop.

The red lanterns welcoming and sending off at the entrance of the Xu shop seemed to be redder than usual. In the shop, corpses were placed from the front shop to the courtyard. If counted carefully, there were no less than three hundred.

On this day, the incense and candle shop across the street closed early. At night, no matter what movement was outside, the mother and daughter would never open the door.

The Wu family's old sister-in-law and Wu Yaoxing from the paper-cutting shop next door had already followed Wu Zhiyuan to Pingqi County. Now there was no need to be terrified every year at this time, fearing that corpses would come knocking at night.

When Wu Yaoxing left, he specifically invited Xu Qing to drink for half a day at the restaurant.

Xu Qing had expected it long ago, but when he heard old Wu wanted to transfer the paper-cutting shop to himself, he was silent for a long time.

People on Jingxia Street come and go, just like the two lanterns hanging at his door, welcoming and sending off, but they can't keep anyone.

Wu Yaoxing made it clear that Jingxia Street was the place where he grew up, and the paper-cutting shop was the skill he used to eat.

Now that his children and grandchildren were successful, this skill used for eating had become an unsightly scenery on the road of his children and grandchildren's progress.

What can he do? He can only abandon it!

He couldn't drag his children

After thinking it over, he naturally thought of Xu Qing.

In Wu Yaoxing's eyes, Xu Qing's kindness to his family was far from something that could be repaid by a single storefront; if he could give the shop to Xu Qing to manage,

he would be one hundred percent at ease.

Xu Qing had nothing to say. After finishing the farewell wine, the Wu Family Paper Craft Shop was officially surnamed Xu.

However, Xu Qing also said that whenever Wu Yaoxing wanted to return, this paper craft shop would always be kept for him.

Wu Yaoxing was drunk at the time, his face glowing, and he agreed quite readily.

Xu Qing sighed helplessly. In just two short years, nearly half the people on the entire Jingxia Street had left.

But what was fortunate was that even though there were no living friends in his mortician's shop, it was still very lively.

When Xu Qing was busy performing funeral rites for corpses, the immortals in the hall were not idle either.

Huang Xiaoliu came and went without a trace every day, but whenever Xu Qing chanted the Summoning Command, this yellow ferret would always appear in the shop at the first moment.

Gu Zixu and his daughter Gu Qiao'er—one teaching students at the burial shroud shop, the other responsible for the daily affairs of the Feng Shui hall—these two gray immortals with professional experience never gave Xu Qing any cause for concern.

Not to mention Xiuniang; besides going to learn new plays from Boss Liu on time every few days, the thing this ghost girl did most was stay in the Shuimen Bridge villa to train on the few looms Xu Qing had newly purchased for her.

To what extent did this girl listen? When Xu Qing taught her the "Head-Severing Undying Art," he casually made a joke, saying that if she was afraid of not finding her head, she should weave a scarf and tie it on with a hair ribbon, so she wouldn't have to worry about her head getting lost one day.

By the seventh month, when the "autumn tiger" heat was at its peak, Xu Qing went to the villa to till the soil for autumn planting, only to see Xiuniang wrapped in a thick scarf, looking just like the white silk of a hanged ghost—and she didn't even mind the heat!

Xu Qing didn't know how to comment. He had just mentioned it casually; if her head were really cut off one day, wouldn't people just slice through her scarf along with it?

But Xu Qing dared not say more. He felt that if he told Xiuniang to replace the scarf with an iron chain, this girl would probably do exactly that.

With an employee like this who took all his advice—good or bad—to heart and treated work as a pleasure, it was hard for Xu Qing not to be at ease!

Besides the affairs in the county, Big Sister Jin and Bai Xiaoxian from the Baosheng Temple had now formed a pair. As the temple keeper, Big Sister Jin was full of responsibility; she was both Xu Qing's temple keeper and his most devout believer, though this believer never knew what the true form of the Baosheng Mother looked like from beginning to end.

In these two months, through the Blood Lake Dharma Realm, Xu Qing had often used the Dream-Crafting Art to teach Big Sister Jin tips on midwifery and various ways to take care of children. Big Sister Jin had raised children before, so she understood these things instantly.

Now, under the management of Big Sister Jin and Bai Xiaoxian, the incense at Baosheng Temple was increasing day by day, and the influence brought by the midwifery manual was constantly raising the popularity of the Baosheng Mother.

Jinmen was a trading port; every day, countless people from home and abroad, from all directions, came and went for trade. Among them, there were many who passed the midwifery manual to other lands, and since Baosheng Temple was a temple that added children and blessings, involving the propagation of offspring, it naturally attracted more incense and believers.

It was just a pity that the dog emperor didn't do proper work. When Chen Guangrui wrote the benefits of popularizing the midwifery manual into a memorial and sent it to the capital, it stopped at the Grand Secretariat and couldn't even be presented to the imperial desk.

Emperor Jingxing had long issued an edict that memorials from provincial governors and the three provincial offices could be presented to the desk, while memorials from prefectures and counties needed to be screened and reported layer by layer by the local authorities, the three offices, and the Grand Secretariat.

In short, the imperial desk of Emperor Jingxing was now a place of "clarity."

Xu Qing didn't care about these court affairs. Right now, besides these immortal employees who saved him worry, there were also some who made him particularly anxious and concerned!

One was the hall-suppressing immortal, Grandpa Guo, who was far from his homeland, crossing the ocean to fetch seeds from other lands.

As for the other...

Xu Qing took a moment to look at the "lucky cat" guarding the counter for him.

At this moment, the cat was possessing Sun Erzhuang, carefree and playing with the Dream-Eating Gu.

The chubby, white, and tender lazy worm was "baring its fangs and brandishing its claws," letting out squeaking noises. Xu Qing didn't need to open his "All-Hearing Sense" to know how ugly the things this worm was cursing were.

The Dream-Eating Gu slept for twelve hours a day; the only time it was diligent was perhaps when it changed its sleeping posture or rolled over.

Xuan Yu noticed Xu Qing looking over, so it turned its head and stared at him without blinking.

Xu Qing remained silent and turned back to continue performing rites for his corpses.

He could always see the "peaceful years" side of Xuan Yu; even if it were to face a life-and-death tribulation the next moment, before that moment arrived, the cat would not have a shred of worry.

The only time Xu Qing saw Xuan Yu worried was when he had to face the five-hundred-year lightning disaster.

And right now, the one who might face a disaster at any time was Xuan Yu.

Sleepless all night, more than three hundred corpses that had been separated from their heads were now restored to wholeness.

Prisoners sentenced to death by beheading almost all had some unique skill; even if they had no talent, if someone could play their own head away for you to see, that was at least worth calling a "good job" and "professional."

Xu Qing saw everything from peddlers and porters to corrupt officials, and from righteous heroes of the pugilistic world to honest and upright officials.

The vast world could not contain these hundreds of people, but the small mortician's shop contained everything, staging one swan song after another.

Movable type printing, lacquer carving techniques, sugar-blowing painting, flute playing and zither plucking, patchwork clothing, ten thousand people gifting umbrellas, and those unspeakable secret skills like picking locks, forging official seals, and stealing chickens and dogs.

After counting the rewards from the Scripture of Saving People, Xu Qing had learned many unique skills, but the one that interested him most was a strange art for manufacturing "Heaven-Shaking Thunder."

(End of chapter)